• F I L M R E v I E w 5 • another creature - no, be Her yet, let's David Cronenberg's try it w ith just Brundle, the telepod and the computer. Remember, Brundle's experiment works because he taught the computer to love the flesh. But what if he taught it wrong, or too ""ell and in transporting him, the computer changed him, scrambled his genes to agree with its faulty program. Change the design of the monster a little, drop a couple of specific references to in­ sects and you can do virtually the san1e ith everyone from Andrew Sarris text with the same subtexts. You can on down to Bruce Kirkland heap­ swap teJepods for a gene scanner and a Wing laurel wreaths on David radiation leak or any numher of other Cronenberg and calling The F1y.a mas­ things. You can chuck out science alto­ terpiece, it seems a little mean-spirited gether and do it as a misfired magic rit­ to sit here and say no, it isn't, it isn't a ual. You can almost do it as a werewolf masterpiece - particularly since I'm one story - haul genetic fuSion back in for of those who, ever since The Brood, the climax. You can skip the genre ele­ has been flinging his own laurel wreaths ments completely and go for naturalism and trying to get the big boys to take - cancer, a brain tumor, porphyria - notice. But The Fly is not a master­ there are lots of diseases that warp both piece. body and mind. In short: The Fly isn't Yes, it's Cronenberg's best direction about the fly. In jargon: the text has to date. He could always do the scary been reduced to the status of pretext stuff, but now he can do the rest of it for the subtext In effect: the picture just as well. It's funny when Jeff heads toward flatness. Once you've "got Goldblum sits down to play the piano. it" there's nothing else to get In a mas­ It's se:lI.-y when lends her terpiece, one of the things you find is a stocking for an experiment. It's realistic • The Fly - a masterpiece of modern film horror three-way resonance involving the tale, and hot when they make love. It's the perceptions of the audience mem­ exhilarating when he goes into his gym­ ing about are there and they're deliber­ taneously pulls you back into the story, ber and the intended meaning(s) of the nastic routine and it's real-life rotten ate. We have the Monster As Metaphor focussing you, \vith heightened under­ tale. Here, one side of that triangle just when she breaks down over her pre­ For Disease: Guy gets cancer (genetic standing and empathy, on the hero's doesn't vibrate. gnancy. fusion with fly) and turns very ugly, in­ very specific story. Which is why The Fly is not a mas­ Yes, it's Cronenberg's most hand­ side and out, but the girl who loves him This doesn't happen in The Fly for terpiece (Which may also be why it's somely-mounted production by far. hangs on, trying to help, refusing to turn three reasons. First, the text keeps being called a masterpiece: this is the Mark Irwin:s camerawork is flawless, away as long as a trace of her beloved pointing you back at the sub texts. "I first Cronenberg movie you can "get" moody, claustrophobic and the source remains. In the end, she performs a won't be another tumerous bore," says without having to get right down eye­ of a lot of tension. Carol Spier's art dir­ mercy killing, proof of love and a de­ Brundle and, later on trying to convince ball to oozing eyeball with the weird, ection fleshes out the characters with monstration that, in life, there ain't no Veronica to accept assimilation, "We'll lunatic, gory bits. You can get the mess­ tons of terrific details. The monsters happy endings. We have The Monster be the perfect nuclear family," pushing age without really enduring the fright and gore, by California's Chris Walas, As Metaphor for Neurotic Lover: Guy you to remember that this is metaphor, and that makes it very safe, clean and are every bit as classy as those in falls in love, becomes jealous and turns pushing you to consider how this re­ respectable. Read Sarris or Jay Scott in Aliens. In all, this is the film that himself into a monster (It's his own lates to you. Which, on a literal level, is the Globe & Mail - the way they talk in should, once and for all, lay to rest any­ fault that the fly is in the telepod with not true. spots they could almost be discussing body's lingering qualms about the capa­ him. If he'd been calm and sober, none This is a minor point (reason two, someone like good, grey Norman Jewi­ bility of Canadian crews. of this need have happened.) Girl reas­ here), but not, I think, a negligible one: son.). Yes, the performances are dandy. sures guy of her love, but it's too late. The Fly, on a literal level, has nothing If The Fly isn't a masterpiece, it's still Even the smallest role - the bar-girl All he wants now is to assimilate her to do with you and me. Videodrome is a very good movie, head, shoulders and pick-up 00y Boushel) - is perfectly cast completely, but she'd like to retain her about watching TV and what it might do belly-button above most of the brain­ and played with a full measure of intelli­ sense of self. Girl kills guy and so much to you. We all watch the box. The less, heartless drivel that passes for hor· gence and intensity. John Getz, as for Love The Redeemer. The two sub­ Brood is about outer-limits therapy and ror and science fiction on the screen Stathis Borans the heroine's editor and texts even fuse when Brundlefly sees as­ child abuse and many of us have had ex­ these days. Cronenberg'S accomplish­ ex-lover, does good work in a crummy similation as the cure for his condition. perience of both. The Fly is about mu­ ment is not to be denied and the recog­ art. It's not his fault that Borans is Mr. This is Cronen berg's view of love and tating into an insect and there's just no nition is long overdue. Slime, but Getz tries to compensate mortality. In an interview in Tbe Village connection, not on the literal, story-tel­ Finally, to reverse the field complete­ anyway, making sure we know that he Voice (Aug. 19, 1986, p. 50), he states, ling level. Of course, you may not find ly: there is a sense in which The Fly is, in his own sweaty way, in love. Bo­ ..... somebody dies, somebody gets old, much to connect you with the; Greek may be considered a masterpiece. Years rans-as-creep serves two functions: he somebody gets sick. One of the key king or the Danish prince, but their ago in an art history course, I stayed denies us the traditional happy-ending people in a romance becomes a mons­ stories do a good deal more than func­ awake long enough to learn that "mas­ escape route of the worthy second ter sooner or later," and, later on says, tion as metaphor. terpiece" originally referred to the banana who puts the heroine's shat­ "It's like looking on someone you love This, as I said, is a minor point and if work the student did that summed up tered life together at the end and he dying. It's unthinkable, but would you you decide I'm just plain wrong, I'm not all he had learned from his master and keeps our sympathy focussed on the turn away? ... But you'll never conceive gonna be heartbroken and I don't think signalled that he was now going to doomed lovers. Who repay us in full. of these things unless you watch. If I did the strength of my argument will be ma­ strike out on his own. Cronenberg has is a perfect it offscreen, you wouldn't get it." terially affected, because the real pro­ no master in that sense. He is, like most (Where does Cronenberg get these He does it onscreen. You get it and it blem with The Fly is not its lack of post-studio-era-directors, largely self­ names?), intelligent enough to be the works. Unless you're heartdead, you'll connection with us, but its lack of taught. Still, he has said he learned a lot genius he's supposed to be and carrying . feel the pity and the terror for both the connection between text and subtext. about the human elements in storytel­ a physical and emotional intensity and a Brundlefly and Veronica that Cronen­ Try this simple test: Imagine The ling from producers Stuart Cornfeld and low-key self-confidence that only needs berg wants you to feel. Brood is about hypotherapy rather Mel Brooks, and The Fly, despite a weak­ the slightest push to slip from charming So what is there to prevent this from than the phYSical-manifestation therapy er story than The Brook and less exci· to frightening. Goldblum knows how to being a masterpiece? What could possi· of psychoplasmics. What you get is Sa­ tement than Videodrome, is arguably give it that push and how to let Brun­ bly be wrong with a movie that has all mantha Eggar killing people and what his best work. His ongOing thematic ele­ dIe's dignity and humor (on which he's this going for it? you lose is the mind-body aspect of the ments are present, clear and fully explo­ got a perfect handle) shine through Well, actually, it's the text itself. It film and the visual correlation between red. His command of the medium is as­ Without ever lapsing into sentimental­ does provide a wonderful vehicle for the brood and her natural child, which sured and his ""ork with actors is well ity. Geena Davis as Veronica has less to the subtexts, but it doesn't really do in turn loses you a whole lot of subtext above his previous standard. It is possi· work With, but she still creates a very much else, like resonate, for in­ about child abuse. Now try it as a movie ble then that he can and will take what rounded, believable character whose stance. In the works that have taken about spouse abuse with a brood of he knows and use it to begin building an intelligence, humor, hardness and vul· centuries to earn their masterpiece sta· murderous Art Hindles. Changes every­ entirely different kind of David Cronen­ nerability all function together, color· tus, Hamlet, say, or Oedipus, every time thing. How about Videodrome as a berg film. ing one another. the text raises those issues that set you movie about radio. Okay, now let's try And, yes, the subtexts they're all rav· to musing on your own life, it simul· The Fly without the fly. Let'S try it with Andrew Dowler.

November 1986 - Cinema Canada/41